Presence and peace of mind, not necessarily compatible…

I categorize configuring Presence as a test of endurance and concentration. Fifty bazillion steps, forget one, and you’ll spend hours hunting down never-ending oddities in the CUPS client’s behavior.

And even if you do configure it all right, I’ve recently found you *still* get to hunt down mysteries of bizarre grandness.

The situation unfolded like this: new deployment, about sixty users, all but four can get logged into their CUPS client. Not a bad ratio, but unfortunately the four remaining users aren’t going to be pleased until the success rate hits 100%. Some users are *so* picky.

Quick glance at the configuration confirmed that these four users were in no way special configuration-wise, all the Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM) and Presence configuration hoops had been successfully navigated, leaving the reason for the users’ login failures elusive.

At this point in troubleshooting, I decide it’s a really good idea to isolate the system at fault. Too many options on the table- the culprit could be the CUPS client, CUCM, the Presence server, or even Active Directory- time to narrow it down to exactly which device needs a good kicking.

Ruling out the client piece, that’s super easy. Logged in as someone else successfully – time to move on, nothing to see here.

Next up, CUCM. Since Presence passes login requests over to CUCM, which is this case is LDAP integrated, it’s necessary to confirm that CUCM and AD are making nice with one another.

Since I’ve got about 50 some odd users (some odder than others) having no problems logging in, I’m comfortable that the overall LDAP integration configuration is likely in good shape. So how to isolate an issue with a single user login?

I prefer using the ccmuser web page. For those not familiar, users can go to this web address: http://ipaddressofserver/ccmuser to setup options for his/her phone. This is a fabulous feature for administrators who get tired of adding/modifying yet another speed dial for Sue down the hall who gets on your last nerve.

The ccmuser page is also an awesome tool for LDAP integration testing – if the user can login to the ccmuser page successfully, you know that CUCM has successfully pulled the users credentials from AD.* If they can’t, you need to hunt down the weird little sysadmin guy because he’s got some explaining to do.

In the case at hand, three out of four of the problem users couldn’t login into the ccmuser page. This brings me to the next step of troubleshooting: pleading with the weird little sysadmin guy to reset the users’ passwords. Yes, you will have to plead, because no way the sysadmin takes your word for it that the passwords he set for the users isn’t what he thinks it is. Don’t be afraid to bribe them either. Sysadmins will do anything for a coffee and a cookie. Seriously, anything. Need you’re bathroom remodeled? Your car washed?

Anyway, 3 password resets later, and only 1 problem user remains between myself and a decent lunch. User de annoyance can login to the ccmuser page but still cannot login to CUPS. Out of standard tricks at this point, I google this: user cannot login cups but can ccmuser. I know, very creative, it’s a gift. My search found me this gem: http://www.learnios.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30324 .

In the post, a user presents a similar issue, although an older version of Presence, and the fix suggested is to restart the “Cisco UP Sync Agent” and the Cisco Tomcat service, the latter needing to be done via the command line by typing utils service restart Cisco Tomcat. User mentions that just restarting the Sync Agent worked for him, but I found that I had to do both to resolve the issue. I’m just lucky that way.

So there you have it. Even if the configuration on your Presence server is pristine, you may find yourself wading through issues that turn your hair (what’s left of it) prematurely gray and make you wish you’d chosen a career as a potato farmer.

*Being able to login to the ccmuser page is also contingent on the user being assigned the Standard CCM Users group in CUCM. Do this from User Management in CUCM.